Can’t we all just get along?

I really don’t know what the big deal people have with cosplayers.  They’re a fun lot!  I’ve worked a few conventions now and I’ve seen it all!  Some costumes will make you cringe, but many are really well done!  An amazing amount of creativity.  But it seems like they get kind of made fun of (outside the nerd scene) and that just boggles my mind.  I guess it’s because liking gaming, or role playing, or cosplaying, or anything we geeky folks like tends to fall outside the norm.  I guess it’s not so much counterculture as it is a subculture, but still… there’s no reason for any hating if it’s not part of the mainstream.  Why can’t we have our own culture?  You’d be in some deep doodoo if you were to outwardly say the same about geeks as you would say Chinese or Jewish or Irish people (just shooting off the top of my head).  My point is this, it’s a culture; we’re here, we’re dorks, get used to it!

As for this comic, well, I find that the whole “jock vs nerd” thing is completely insane.  There seems to be this made up line between being a nerd and a sports fanatic.  If you wear a baseball jersey or the uniform shirt of your favorite hockey player… you are cosplaying.  Least that’s how I see it.  And what of the sports fans?  Sure, it’s fun to pick on the guy who can quote any line from Star Trek, but what of the person that knows every statistic of the New York Yankees for the last decade?  Where is the line?  What defines unacceptable nerdom?  Is it a genre thing?  I highly don’t understand that as an excuse.

Bottom line… y’all are nerds!  I don’t mean that meanly, I’m a nerd after all!  But if you’re fanatical or passionate about anything, that makes you a nerd of that genre.  As there are sci-fi nerds and fantasy nerds, there are also sports nerds, art nerds, history nerds… nerds all the way down!  I think we need to stop seeing the differences between people and celebrating our similarities!  It’s not a mocho thing either, since I’ve seen all makes and models of human come by my booth at the cons and, to me, it’s almost an affirmation of our unity despite any superficial factor.  Well, I guess there’s still the Star Trek vs Star Wars people, but that’s a whole other topic for another time.  >)